Amplification

• Generally, amplification is a basic process sometimes seen in nature, and often used in processes which involve a signal which must be made stronger. See amplifier.
• In linguistics, an amplification is a figure of speech that adds importance to or makes the most of a statement, to increase its rhetorical effect.
• In molecular biology, amplification (polymerase chain reaction or PCR) is the method for creating multiple copies of DNA (or RNA) without using a living organism, such as E. coli or yeast.
• In electronics, the unit of amplification is the bel (note the single "l").
• In rhetoric, amplification names a number of figures of speech and general strategies including: copia (discovery of ideas and expression); schemes for naming divisions of a text, for the purpose of expanding or expounding a topic or increasing rhetoric force (arrangement), possibly as a stylistic vice (like hyperbole), in association with emotional effects such as climax.

Amplification in Rhetoric

Amplification refers to the act and the means of extending thoughts or statements to increase rhetorical effect, to add importance, or to make the most of a thought or circumstance (Oxford English Dictionary). While amplification can refer to exaggeration--or stylistic vices (figures of excess and superfluity such as hyperbole)--as a means for developing multiple forms of expression for a thought, amplification, “names an important point of intersection where figures of speech and figures of thought coalesce” (Silva Rhetoricae).

As Copia

According to Silva Rhetoricae, “the centrality of amplification to rhetoric is apparent in its use as a way of categorizing the function of many figures, especially when authorities have used amplification as a way of creating a third category of figures that lies between those of words and those of thought”.

As a category of figures and practice of arrangement, novice rhetors can apply amplification to develop facility as well as copius vocabulary and subject material for future composition. Thus, amplification is a pedagogical process related to copia.

As Arrangement

As arrangement, amplification involves identifying parts of a whole text as a process (division) where each part may be subject to strategies of amplification. As such a process, amplification is a set of strategies that together constitute the classical cannon of discovery (or invention) of rhetorical arguments.

As Scheme

As a scheme of arrangement amplification refers to a sequence comparable to incremental increase of rhetorical force toward emotional effects like climax, which may be superfluous or exaggeration (stylistic vice).

References

Oxford English Dictionary

Silva Rhetoricae